After seeing many great examples in the blogosphere, of the Coco dress pattern by Tilly and the Buttons, I finally downloaded the pattern and gave it my own try.  The pattern is wildly popular, and now I know why.  It was fast to make, the fit perfect, and the style cute and comfortable.  There’s no need for me to do a full pattern review.  It’s been done elsewhere, by better reviewers.  You might want to start by checking out the Coco Pinterest gallery.

So, about my version:  I went wild with the print.  This fabric had been sitting on my stash shelf for several years.  It is a spandex swimsuit knit.

This fabric is stretchier and lighter weight than the pattern recommends.  But, it worked really well, with the exception of the collar, which drapes like a cowl instead of staying rolled in place.  For lightweight fabric such as this, I suggest using an interfacing in the collar for extra body.

Because the print isn’t crazy enough (hehe), I went through my stash of trims, and added some stripes down the arms.  I’m super happy with the result.

New phone camera doesn’t do so well on mirror selfies. 😡   Not sure if it is the mirror or lighting.  But here is the dress at the end of its first wearing to the office.

When I originally purchased the fabric, it was to make some quick, wild summer car seat slipcovers.  Those worked out great, too.  But I bought way too much fabric, and the rest sat on the shelf, almost going in the donation box more than once.

The ‘Pup-prentice’

I can’t forget to credit my foster ‘pup-prentice’.  He insisted on helping at every step; even when it meant crawling under my chair and up through the sewing cabinet.